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FRENCH Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the 2019 budget would be based on a growth forecast of 1.7 per cent instead of the two per cent forecast in April, casting doubt on the government’s ability to cut the public budget deficit.

The minister said the government would keep its pledge to hold the budget deficit under three per cent of gross domestic product next year, in line with European Union rules.

However, the latest warning will spark concerns.

Mr La Maire said: “Today, economic growth is at around 1.7 per cent.

“But I’d like to remind the French that the average growth rate has been no more than 0.8 per cent for the past 10 years. And so in hindsight, it’s not so bad.”

He continued, after being forced to concede that growth was “a little bit lower than expected”: “Economic growth remains solid. Even though I think we can still do a lot better and accelerate the pace,”

The finance chief blamed the gloomier outlook for the economy on the rise in the price of oil and France’s “dependence on imports,” but also on the recent wave of anti-government strikes, which Mr Le Maire said slashed the growth forecast by around 0.1 per cent.

He said: “In moments like this, we need to stay the course and stay calm.”

Mr Le Maire also confirmed that the sluggish growth would push the deficit to 2.6 per cent of economic output instead of the 2.3 per cent expected so far, mainly because of a decision to take over debt from the SNCF public railway firm.

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The SNCF’s liabilities had been included in the public sector because commercial activity had made up less than half of its business in 2017, triggering the reclassification.

That added 2.2 billion euros (£1.9 billion) to the public deficit and 39.5 billion euros (£35.2 billion) to the national debt.

Mr Le Maire added that the government would however keep its pledge to hold the budget deficit under three per cent of gross domestic product in 2019, saying that the recovery of public accounts was “non-negotiable”.

Asked about the national debt, which is currently hovering at around 98.5 per cent of GDP, Mr Le Maire said that it had not yet risen above the “symbolic” 100 per cent mark.

“We’re flirting with the 100 per cent mark, but this is because decisions made several years ago pushed the debt to around 90-95 per cent of GDP,” he said, in an apparent jab at former socialist leader François Hollande’s economic policies.

“Our economic policy is designed to reduce the French debt,” Mr Le Maire stressed. “What is important is that we are able, in the long term, to reduce the debt by around five percentage points.”

France is among the global frontrunners in the spending stakes, and has been under pressure from Brussels and the International Monetary Fund to detail plans to rein in public spending.